This
article was written from the perspective of one female Thelemite.It was written within a specific framework
which does not particularly evoke sympathy. I wrote this article because I
believe that by doing so, I may encourage others who have been in a situation
similar to mine to come forth. My aim here is to expose one personal scenario
which exemplifies the misogynistic “rhetoric” inherent in the discourse and
actions of the so-called “leaders” and “players” within the current O.T.O.

The
objective here is not to attract attention to any particular “individual”, but
rather to suggest that there is an inherent
tendency toward a male superiority within the OTO and other such Masonic-type
orders. This tendency cannot be examined as a an isolated entity, but needs to
be briefly deconstructed from its historical antecedents.

The
O.T.O claims to have derived some its “western” mysteries and teachings from
the Masonry and the Order of the Templars. Both the Masonry as well as the
Order of the Knights Templar had unquestionably significant impact during the
Virgo-Pisces Era; both also, as many other institutions during the old Aeon,
naturally adopted the policy of excluding women. The Order of the Knights
Templar, for example, was only open to men. Wives of men who joined the Templar
Order were expected to join other religious orders as nuns. Templars were
forbidden to kiss their mothers, wives, sisters or any women[1].
The Masonry, up until today, does not accept women into its ranks (although
there are “reformed” masonry lodges which have “special chapters” for women,
wives, and etc.)

Primitive
human tribes beliefs in women’s “erratic” nature were based upon a fear of
women’s menstruation, its relation to the cycles of the moon, and consequently,
its powerful and destructive effect upon men. This primitive fear of woman led
many tribes to isolate women from common tribal rituals.The perpetuation of this primitive belief
was conveniently revived during the Virgo-Pisces era, when a woman’s nature was
believed to be too erratic, changeable, and fickle to be relied upon,
especially for trusting the most “guarded” secrets. This mythkept women from being accepted into secret
societies which had began to sprang in Europe at around the time of Renascence.

Insofar
as the O.T.O is concerned, from the days of Theodore Reuss’s to Crowley’s until
today, we notice that very few efforts have been made to “dispel” this inherent
myth. Instead of a progressive approach toward attaining the goal of merging
the male-female element as proscribed in Liber AL, several operative O.T.O.’s
continue to relegate women to secondary or “lesser” roles, thus, perpetuating
the myths of misogyny and male superiority.

My
own personal account reflects this unchanged attitude. As a disclaimer, I would
like to state that any similarities, apparent “accusations” to individuals will
be either a result of a self-identification, or mere coincidence.

Since the early
days of the O.T.O., the position of women within the Order has been
predominantly a passive one; the most glaring example of that is the role of
the Priestess within the Gnostic Mass. Female names of Gnostic saints are
stripped from the canon of the exclusively male Pantheon. (Though it is true
that some Thelemic Outer Orders have attempted to revise this list to include
female names. However, this does not seem to have yet become official or
accepted.)

Crowley, insofar
as several of his assertions regarding the female gender inform,lived up to the writing standards of his
time. The language factor here is inclusive, as the reference to “man” as the
universal being was and still is common and acceptable language usage. But some
of Crowley’s own writings certainly are tainted with an inherent misogynistic
view of the female gender and the superiority of the male formula over the
female. These are also surprisingly representative of the historical and social
circumstances under which Crowley was writing, and probably include the
Freudian factor, that is, Crowley’s hatred of his own mother.

There are
undoubtedly, one the one hand, magical reasons which are beyond my
understanding that might have led Crowley to exclude the female element from
one O.T.O. Grade (the XI* Degree, of course). There are however, historical
antecedents of the O.T.O. which might have influenced Crowley to leave women
excluded from grades, or their limited or passive collaboration within certain
rituals, simply untouched.It is known
to all that before his death, Crowley urged Germer of the many reforms that
needed to take place within the O.T.O.

Ironically,
within a social context, since the advent of the New Aeon, that is, within just
about one hundred years, women have made unprecedented advances in human
society (most glaringly in the West). These first hundred years of the New Aeon
have witnessed the “breaking of the chains” that had kept women in slavery.As said in Liber AL, II, 45, “…I will fill
her up with joy: with my force shall she see & strike at the worship of Nu:
she shall achieve Hadit.”

Some might
question, then, why women have not yet played a significant, primary role
within Thelema?The misogynist might
even argue in response to that that women are not ‘evolved” enough to
understand Thelema, or that their reproductive apparatus renders them
“inferior” due to the reproductive burden of their sexual organs, or due to
their lack of a penis. But this simplistic mindset does not explain why some
women willingly chose not to
reproduce, or chose to “play” the role of the male, either through manifest
homosexuality, socially or magically.

Young women who
come into contact with Thelema today have to deal with several obstacles,
namely: a lack of more specific data and anecdotal female initiatic experiences
(including experiences relating to the IX* Grade, its operation, and its
perspective from the female operator); the inherent sexism within Crowley’s writings;
and, and most importantly, a certain “abuse” of power by certain males within
the O.T.O.This abuse of power, appears
to be in absolute contradiction with the tenet, “Every man and every woman is a
star” which strikes a cord in the heart of every woman who comes into contact
with Thelema. This abuse of power also indicates that the O.T.O is not exempt
from the type of abuse that occurs within other mundane organizations. On the
contrary, the OTO could provide a fertile ground for “insecure boys” or “sick
old men.” These unfit individuals tend to overtly diminish the importance of
females members within “their” chapters or lodges, or if their importance is at
all acknowledged, it is often through their “objectification,” either through
“initiatory” sex rituals, and other such “favors.[2]”

It is a hard for
a female Thelemite to admit to this, but there is nothing very impressive about
the diaries ofsome of Crowley’s
“Scarlet Women.” I have found, through the diaries that I have read, that they
were very shallow, containing mostly accounts of what A.C. did during a certain
period of time. At best, they related some attempts at practicing the VII*
operation, but nothing is recorded with scientific consistency. Many times I
have questioned whether SW’s statuses were given as “honorary” to these women
while they were in service of the Order. Nevertheless, there are indeed several
female Thelemites who have made a contribution to Thelema. Jane Wolfe is
definitely one very important example, a woman who was not “feminine” looking
enough to fit within the standards of a Lodge “goddess.” However, there aren’t
enough documents circulating that speak of her experience as a female Thelemite
that could assist many of us females who are in the Path.

Consequently, there
is a pressing need to deconstruct the “myths” that have been created over time
about the role of females within the O.T.O., if we are to attract more females
into our hordes, especially intelligent ones!Sadly,this “myth” has been
consistently reinforced by certain unscrupulous male members of the Order who
have been given power too fast, without greater scrutiny, and have consequently
abused it.

(Not to say that
there aren’t enough Thelemic males who have understood and acknowledged through
their writing, their work, and through the virtue of their initiatic influence,
the importance of reforming the inherent sexism within the O.T.O. These men
have had the courage to promote women, to empower female members by letting
them play active key leadership roles within their Order.)

Having
established the above as the framework to my own personal account, I would like
to begin by telling you that I came into contact with Thelema when I was a
college student at age 18. At that time, I became interested in joining the
O.T.O.; one local fellow who was an O.T.O. member told me that the O.T.O. was
only for men. He went into great lengths to explain the symbolic
“representation” of the O.T.O. letters, their relationship with the phallic
male genitalia, and blah, blah, blah. I was rather bored by his lecture, which
seemed “restrictive”. However,I had to
acquiesce with his “glass ceiling” policy until another contact would later
surface.

Some years later, I came into contact with a
certain O.T.O. member, who held a key authority post locally. This member was
also known for his writings, many of which featured pictorial renditions of the
female genitalia, and other portrayals of the female body in a very “passive”
way.

When I first saw
such pamphlets, I questioned him directly about his depictions of the female
body, as well as his overemphasizing on “passive” female nudity to illustrate
his writings. On that occasion, I candidly told him that I found it unnecessary
the overuse of such imagery, since it had no context within his writings. I
also asked him why, if he was so adamant about including nudity, wouldn’t he
include nude males as well?He told me
at the time that these were mere “artistic” renditions and they represented his
“love and worship of the Goddess.” I
tried not to emphasize much on this and focused on trying to understand him
within the context of his older “generation.”However, I found that this tendency had become symptomatic in that the
mostly young male members of his Lodge were abusing of this imagery.
Nevertheless, I tried to keep the focus on advancing the Order. At one point,
given my dedication and contributions to his order, this high ranking member
gave me high grade within his OTO.

Some years passed by and this high ranking
member kept treating me as the Lodge “primadona”: he would not give me any
meaningful work to do, and several of his interactions with me were very
superficial. Many times I asked him serious questions pertaining to rituals and
his response would be “don’t worry: you are already a goddess.” “Goddess of
what?” I asked him. He seemed to imply that because I was a woman, young and
had a vagina, I was “naturally” initiated. I refused to believe in that, but
continued to work for the Order for one single reason: I wanted to make a
contribution to the lineage of the Founder of this Order.

Many women might
fall into the trap of being treated as “naturally” initiated. This assumption
represents, on the contrary of a privilege, a trap in the sense that your
female physiology makes you initiated since you bleed monthly, you reproduce,
etc. The flip side of this assumption is that women are not allowed to do
certain things.

Soon after I
received the high grade nomination, I learned that one of the Lodge “Masters”
was giving I* Grade Initiation to female candidates through a sexual act.In other words, any females wishing to enter
his Lodge had to simply have the courage to strip themselves in front of all
the mostly male members of the order and let the Lodge “master” penetrate “within.”This was, apparently, the “pre-requisite” to
receiving the I* grade. I brought this issue up to the attention of the high
ranking member. His response to me was that I had become too “serious.”I dismissed his comments, and at that point
I knew there was no much I could learn from him and his OTO.

At that time,
several members exchanged correspondence within themselves to the extend that
they thought there might be something wrong with the abuse of such “sexual”
initiations by the Lodge master. I collected details from many of these
correspondences and started writing a detailed report. Sadly, most of the
female initiates would join the order and leave shortly afterwards.

The high ranking
member was aware that, while I was affiliated with his O.T.O., I had been in
different relationships, and at one point had become involved with one
Thelemite. A couple of months after my relationship began with this one
Thelemite, the high ranking O.T.O. member called for a national “meeting” of
all lodges. There would be some initiations, readings and one big luncheon.
This was taking place at a hotel in a city in the mountains. I was in touch
with the organizers by e-mail who notified me of a date and place for the
event.

Prior to the
event, the high ranking member told me how “excited” he was that I would be
participating in the event. However, I did not tell him until later on that my
partner would be coming along. My intention was to introduce both men in
person, since they had already contemplated creating a formal tie between their
Orders. After I notified him that my partner would be coming along to the
national “meeting”, I did not hear back from him again. I waited until the day
of the meeting to confront him in person.

Upon my arrival,
assuming everything was still on, I contacted the local lodge Master to get
driving directions to the meeting location. He told me by phone that the
meeting had been cancelled by the high ranking member. I asked him why; he
said, “I can’t explain to you by phone, we must meet in person.” Thus, I
invited him and four other members of the O.T.O. for lunch. During lunch, they
narrated what the “grand” initiation plan of his “master” was:It involved, among other things, presenting
me to the other members of the order as his “Scarlet Woman” and possibly,
performing a IX* grade initiation for the “entertainment” of the group.Since I had come accompanied with my
partner, the “operation” was cancelled, and so was the important “national”
meeting.

As
one would conclude, from that day on, my contact with this high ranking member
and his O.T.O. was severed. I wrote him a long letter immediately after the
event expressing my outrage. I never received an answer to it.

Many
years have passed and as far as I have been informed, things have not changed
within his domain. Even though Lodge masters have resigned and new blood has
come in, the basic “concept” of forceful “sexual” I* grade initiation, I
believe, still persists. By now, I am no longer his “sought after” Scarlet
Woman; others might have come and filled up the post, as they always will.
Maybe, they will be bitchier than I was, and bite his penis off!